Web butt splicing apparatus

ABSTRACT

Three rotatable drums are mounted on a framework with two of the webs carrying a cooperating cutting tool with old and new webs fed therebetween. Rotation of the same causes simultaneous cutting of the old and new webs as they are held in overlapping position to achieve butt positioning of the ends while an adhesive strip carried on the periphery of the third drum moves into position to overlap the abutting ends.

I United States Patent 1151 3,654,035 Takimoto 1 Apr. 4, 1972 4] WEB BUTT SPLICING APPARATUS R f r n Cit d [72] Inventor: l-lisashi Takimoto, Kanagawa, Japan UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,706,515 4/1955 Evers ..156/505 X [73] Ass'gnee' f Kanagawa 3,089,661 5/1963 Phillips, Jr. et al... ....156/504 x 3,227,594 1/1966 Ryan 156/506 x [22] Filed: Jan. 26 1970 Primary Examiner-Benjamin A. Borchelt PP N05 5,452 Assistant Examiner-J. J. Devitt Att0rney--Sughrue, Rothwell, Mion, Zinn & Macpeak [30] Foreign Application Priority Data [57] ABSTRACT Feb. 26, 1969 Japan ..44/14401 Three rotatable drums are mounted on a framework with two of the webs carrying a cooperating cutting tool with old and [52] U.S. Cl ..l56/505, 156/502, 156/504 new webs fed therebetween. Rotation of the same causes 5 B31f5/06, 5 5 19/13 03 15 04 simultaneous cutting of the old and new webs as they are held 58 Field 61 Search ..156/502 504 505 506 in OverlaPPing POsition achieve Posimming ends while an adhesive stri carried on the periphery of the third P drum moves into position to overlap the abutting ends.

5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures .J 2 "I I I8 9 |||I| ll mmm H 1? 'w lilllfl iiii 10 11 s y! liiiiiiii in Patented April 4, 1972,

3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented A ril 4, 1 972 3 ,654,035

3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented April 4, 1972 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR ATTORNEY WEB BUTT SPLICING APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to an apparatus for butt splicing relatively thin webs suchas paper, plastic, metal foil and the like.

2. Description of the Prior Art I .In the prior art, splicing of webs is achieved by joining the end of the old web with one end of a new web from webs being unwound from rolls carried on cores with the webs being spliced by overlapping the ends thereof. The overlapping :splicing method has a serious disadvantage since the thickness of theweb increases at the overlapped portion, the variation in "thickness effects coating or printing results when the web is fed through a coating or printing apparatus. Because of this disadvantage, but splice methods for splicing webs is both desirable andsometimes employed such as illustrated in.U.S. Pat. No. 2,745,464.

The butt splicing method, however, cannot be carried out in the case of feeding a relatively thin web, especially a thin plastic web. This is because when the web is fed by a pair of drums from a convoluted supply, the web cannot be fed or pushed forward on account of its low. rigidity and, accordingly,

cannot be moved into abutting position with respect to another web. Therefore, it has been impossible in conventional apparatus to dispose a splicing device within the upper portion of a web treating apparatus and splice the web while feeding the web inan upwardly direction.

This is .particularlythe case where the web is inclined to generate static electricity such as in plastic webs. In this case there is a further disadvantage since sometimes the end of the new web to be joined onto the end of the rewound web sticks to the severed piece of the rewound web with a cut piece being guided out of the treatment apparatus because of the static electricitygenerated on the severed piece of web.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a splicing apparatus for splicingwebs without the disadvantages enumerated above in conventionalapparatus. F urther; the object of the present invention is to provide a splicing apparatus which may splice even a thin pliable webby butt connecting the ends.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of the web butt splicing apparatus inaccordance with the present invention as employed with a turret type web unwinding apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary view in cross-section of the butt splicing portion of the apparatus in accordance with the DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referringto the drawing showing one embodiment of the present invention, a commonly employed unwinding apparatus is identified at number 1 having a triple shafted turret. The turret supports an old web 2 which is almost completely unwound, while thenew web 3 has just started to be unwound. Pass rollers 4 and 5 guide the web upwardly in the direction indicated by thearrow in the drawing. The old web 2 is fed toward the web treating apparatus (not shown) located above the apparatus shown. The new web which is to be unwound next is illustrated at 3 in FIG. 1. The new web 3 is sucked onto the cutting drum 7 after guiding of the same by the pass rollers 6 and is brought into the ready state for splicing. The reference numeral 8 indicates a drum for both cutting and splicing, with the apparatus further including a splicing drum 9. The drums 7, 8 and 9 are all mounted on framework 10 for rotation thereon. The framework 10 is also provided with a power portion (not shown). The pass roller 5 is rotatably mounted to the cutting and splicing drum 8 and revolves with the same as the web is fed and thus rotates with the cutting and splicing drum 8 when cutting.

Referring to FIG. 3, a cutting member 11 is fixed to the cutting drum 7 while a cutting member 12 is fixed to the cutting and splicing drum 8. The cutting members 11 and 12 sever the web 2 together with web 3 as the webs are lapped thereon. The cutting member 12 serves as a base for the cooperating cutter blade to sever the webs due to the cooperating nature of the cutting member 11 which consists of the cutter blade. Numerals 13 and 14 indicate air holes, which introduce positive air pressure to press the leading edge of the new web 3 onto the surface of the cutting and splicing drum 8 by means of a blower and guides the end of the web between the guide plate 15 and the drum 8 to introduce the leading end of web 3 into splicing position A. Air holes 16 and 17 are employed for sucking the leading end of the new web 3 onto the cutting drum 7 and facilitate removing the same after the end of the web is cut.

A hollow cylindrical shaft 18 is provided for cutting drum 7 which shaft is provided with air holes 13 and 16. A partition is provided in the hollow cylindrical shaft 18 as at 26 which acts to partition the hollow cylindrical shaft into two chambers one of which includes air hole 13 and other of which includes air hole 16. Additional air holes 19 and 20 are provided which apply vacuum pressure to the cut piece 2 of the old web 2 after the web 2 is severed and by the application of positive air pressure, facilitates removal of the cut piece 2 from the cutting and splicing drum 8. The hollow cylindrical shaft 21 of the cutting and splicing drum 8 is connected to an external blower (not shown) providing the suction pressure through an air hole 20. A splicing tape 22 is provided for splicing the trailing end of the old web 2 after unwinding of the same to the leading end of the new web 3 which has just started unwinding. The splicing tape 22 is held on the splicing drum 9 by vacuum pressure prior to splicing. The reference numerals 23 and 24 refer to thesuction holes for applying suction to the splicing tape 22 and holding the same onto the splicing drum 9. A hollow shaft 25. which carries opening 23 is connected to a blower (not shown) to provide the desired suction pressure outside of drum 9.

In operation, before the splicing operation, the leading end of the new web 3 is unwound and is sucked onto drum 7 through the application of vacuum pressure to suction hole 17 of drum 7. Thus, the new web 3 extends onto the drum 7 and overlies the hollow cylindrical shaft 18 as shown in FIG. 1. A short splicing tape 22 is held in position on the periphery of splicing drum 9 by the application of vacuum pressure to hole 24 with the adhesive surface of the splicing tape facing the outside.

After the above preparation is completed, the movement of the trailing end of the web 2 from its core is detected, and in response to such detection, the drums 7., 8 and 9 start to rotate in the direction shown by the arrow marks in the drawings by means of the energization of the same from the power source (not shown) which is operatively disposed within the framework 10. When the drums 7, 8 and 9 rotate to the respective positions shown in FIG. 3, the trailing end of the old web 2 and the leading end of the new web 3 are overlapped and are simultaneously severed between cutting members 11 and 12.

Before the drums 7, 8 and 9 are brought into the position shown in FIG. 3, the web is not severed by the cutting member 11 even if cutting member 11 is brought into contact with the web as occurs in the sequence from FIG. 1 to FIG. 3. Butting is achieved only when cutting elements 11 and 12 are opposite each other as seen in FIG. 3. After cutting the old web 2, the cut piece 2' of the old web 2 remains on the periphery of drum 8 by the application of vacuum pressure to holes 19 and 20. The leading end of the new web 3 which is the next web to be unwound, is introduced between the guide plate 15 and the cutting and splicing drum 8 by positive air pressure blown through air holes 13 and 14 from an external blower (not shown), and then introduced into the splicing position A in abutting relation with the severed trailing end of web 2 along with cut piece 2 of the old web 2. This may be best seen in FIG. 4. The cut piece 3 of the new web 3 to be unwound, is held onto the peripheral surface of the cutting drum by the application of vacuum pressure to air holes 16 and 17 as seen best in FIG. 3.

The splicing tape 22 carried by the splicing drum 9 on its periphery by the application of vacuum pressure to holes 23, 24 moves into position as shown in FIG. 4 to splice the trailing end of the old web 2 to the leading end of the new web 3 when these web sections are in abutting relation as the drums are rotated into the position illustrated in the Figure. It is desirable that the surface of the splicing drum 9 be formed of an elastic material such as rubber, soft plastic and the like in order to achieve good splicing.

The cut piece 2 severed from the old web 2 is removed from the new web 3 by continued application of vacuum pressure within the cutting and splicing drum 8 as illustrated in FIG. 5. The drums are continued in their rotation to the positions in FIG. 1 and then stopped. Thus, the splicing operation is completed. After splicing, the severed pieces 2' and 3 are removed from the drum surface by hand or preferably by the application of positive pressure. Where the cut pieces are removed by blowing the same off the drum peripheries, the cut piece 2 is removed from the drum 8 by applying positive pressure through air holes 19 and 20 and the cut piece 3 is removed from cutting drum 7 by applying positive air pressure through air holes 16 and 17. Alternatively, the cut pieces 2 and 3 and the splicing tape 22 may be adhesively held onto the drum surfaces by means of surface adhesive tape covering the same.

in place of the vacuum pressure means described above for introducing the leading end of the new web 3 onto drum 7 and movement of the same into splicing position, an elastic member may be provided on the air hole 14 to push the leading end of the web forward into splicing position between the cutting and splicing drum 8 and guide plate 15. Further, in place of the guide plate 15, there may be provided a roller which rotates in the direction causing introduction of the leading end of the web into splicing position. Alternatively, the guide plate may be provided with an air hole which facilitates the blowing of the web onto the cutting and splicing drum 8 and brining the leading end of the web into splicing position A on the same drum. The drawings accompanying this specification illustrates only one embodiment of the present invention; therefore, the drawings should not limit the possible arrangements or advancing direction of the web to the embodiment illustrated therein.

According to the present invention, in the case of handling webs liable to generate static electricity such as plastics, the leading end of the new web 3 to be unwound may stick to the cut piece 2 of the web which has just finished unwinding by the attractive force of static electricity and may inadvertently be brought into the splicing position A between the cutting and splicing drum 8 and drum 9. Since the leading end of the new web 3 is to b spliced with the end of web 2 by means ofa piece of splicing tape through the cooperation of splicing drum 9, even a thin web such as a pliable plastic web may be spliced. Moreover, in the case of paper, a thin and pliable paper web may be easily spliced with the splice in excellent condition, since the leading end of the new web 3 is introduced into the portion between the guide plate 15 and the cutting and splicing drum 8 by the application of positive air pressure and spliced with. a piece of splicing tape 22 at the splicing position A after being brought into splicin by carrying the same on the periphery of the C splicing drum 8.

Since three drums are employed to cut and splice the web in accordance with the present invention, the distance from the cutting portion to the splicing portion may be shortened in relation to conventional apparatus of this type, and the displacement of the abutting ends of the webs may be reduced prior to actual splicing. Besides, with the present invention, it is possible to splice the webs while feeding the webs upwardly and this, of course, constitutes an improvement. Since the splicing apparatus in accordance with the present invention consists of three drums, the cost of assembling the apparatus is lowered and the area in which the apparatus occupies, is reduced relative to apparatus employing in a conventional manner, four drums. Further, since the splicing apparatus in accordance with the present invention achieves the splicing of the webs while they are moving in a vertical direction from the unwinding apparatus as shown in FIG. 1, the work in preparing the leading end of the new web to be unwound on the cutting drum and the work in preparing the splicing tape on the splicing drum 9 may be easily conducted without interference between the same and the work efficiency is thus improved.

What is claimed is:

I. An apparatus for butt splicing of webs comprising: a framework, a first cutting drum and carrying means for holding the leading end of a new web on the periphery thereof for moving the same into splicing position, cutting means on said first drum, a second cutting and splicing drum, means for holding the old web on the periphery of said second drum during rotation of the same, cutting means carried by said second drum and cooperating with said cutting means of said first drum, a third splicing drum including means for holding a piece of splicing tape thereon for movement therewith, and means for rotatably supporting said drums on said framework for rotation in synchronism such that said second drum is positioned closely adjacent to said first drum and said third drum, the leading end of said new web and the trailing end of said old web are sandwiched between said first and second drums to simultaneously sever the same by said cutting means, the abutting ends of the new and old webs are subsequently sandwiched along with said strip of said splicing tape between said second and third drums such that said splicing tape overlies said abutting web ends to splice the same, and the cut portion of the trailing end of the old web is removed from the spliced joint by the holding means on said second drum.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 further comprising: means for selectively applying vacuum pressure to the periphery of said first, second and third drums to maintain said webs and said splicing strip in proper peripheral positions on said drums during rotation of the same to insure proper cutting of said webs, and butt splicing of the same.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 2, further comprising: means for selectively applying positive air pressure to the peripheral surface of said first and second drums during portions of their rotation to facilitate blowing the severed portions of both the leading end of the new web and the trailing end of the old web away from the drum peripheries.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein said first and second drums constitute hollow sectors and said second drum carries therewith a cylindrical guide member which facilitates proper movement of said webs through said splicing apparatus during both splicing and normal web feed.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4 further comprising: a curved guide plate fixed to said framework at a position radially spaced from the periphery of the second drum and intermediate of said first and third drums to facilitate movement of the severed leading and trailing ends of said new and old webs respectively into sandwiched position between said second and third drum and to facilitate the splicing of the abutting ends thereof.

osition A [NO and 

1. An apparatus for butt splicing of webs comprising: a framework, a first cutting drum and carrying means for holding the leading end of a new web on the periphery thereof for moving the same into splicing position, cutting means on said first drum, a second cutting and splicing drum, means for holding the old web on the periphery of said second drum during rotation of the same, cutting means carried by said second drum and cooperating with said cutting means of said first drum, a third splicing drum including means for holding a piece of splicing tape thereon for movement therewith, and means for rotatably supporting said drums on said framework for rotation in synchronism such that said second drum is positioned closely adjacent to said first drum and said third drum, the leading end of said new web and the trailing end of said old web are sandwiched between said first and second drums to simultaneously sever the same by said cutting means, the abutting ends of the new and old webs are subsequently sandwiched along with said strip of said splicing tape between said second and third drums such that said splicing tape overlies said abutting web ends to splice the same, and the cut portion of the trailing end of the old web is removed from the spliced joint by the holding means on said second drum.
 2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 further comprising: means for selectively applying vacuum pressure to the periphery of said first, second and third dRums to maintain said webs and said splicing strip in proper peripheral positions on said drums during rotation of the same to insure proper cutting of said webs, and butt splicing of the same.
 3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 2, further comprising: means for selectively applying positive air pressure to the peripheral surface of said first and second drums during portions of their rotation to facilitate blowing the severed portions of both the leading end of the new web and the trailing end of the old web away from the drum peripheries.
 4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein said first and second drums constitute hollow sectors and said second drum carries therewith a cylindrical guide member which facilitates proper movement of said webs through said splicing apparatus during both splicing and normal web feed.
 5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4 further comprising: a curved guide plate fixed to said framework at a position radially spaced from the periphery of the second drum and intermediate of said first and third drums to facilitate movement of the severed leading and trailing ends of said new and old webs respectively into sandwiched position between said second and third drum and to facilitate the splicing of the abutting ends thereof. 